Meet The New Millionaires Of IPL As Franchisees Splurge For Big Buys In Players Auction 2016

Chris Morris and Shane Watson along with Pawan Negi became the newest millionaires in IPL after the morning session of the auction saw some sensible bidding from most of the franchisees. Morris went for a hefty sum of Rs. 7 Cr. and Watson to an even higher salary cap of Rs. 9.5 Cr. The bid for Morris started at a base price of Rs. 50 lac that saw a bidding war which eventually sky-rocketed his price to 14 times his base.

T.A Shekhar, the Delhi Daredevils manager, was happy to have bought Morris and said, “We have seen so many auctions, that we didn't want to jump the gun. I have been a part of eight auctions now and it was better to notice the team's upper limit and weigh our chances. We wanted Morris.”

Shane Watson, who was in the pool for only the second time since the inception of the IPL because of the suspension of Rajasthan Royals for two years, is the highest buy for this year till now.

Comeback kid Yuvraj Singh went for Rs. 7 Cr. after Delhi Daredevils released him. He went for Rs. 14 Cr. in the last auction but might just have ended at the right place alongside Virat Kohli in RCB. Other noticeable spends were Ashish Nehra (5.5 crore) to Sunrisers, Mitchell Marsh (4.8) to Rising Pune Super Giants and Sanju Samson and West Indies all-rounder Carlos Braithwate for 4.2 crore each to Daredevils.

Carlos Braithwate was a hot pick for three franchisees owing to his heroics against Sri Lanka lower down the order. He too went for 14 times the base price to Delhi. As of now, newly-formed Pune Super Giants look one of the most stable sides in the league because of the initial draft of players from CSK and RR. Pune now have Dhoni, Rahane, Ashwin, Steve Smith, Faf Du Plessis , Kevin Pietersen and Ishant Sharma.

BCCI

Some surprise players who remain unsold from the morning session include Usman Khawaja, Michael Hussey and Martin Guptill, who, according to many, is one of the best white ball players in the world at the moment.

With the afternoon session remaining, it will be interesting to see how the franchisees’ squads look at the end of the auction.

Tell us what you think about the surprise buys in this IPL auction in the comments section below.